Melee Guidance

[Two]

I've been trying to utilize gun and sword but it just isn't good enough for me yet and I keep finding myself back on my handgun, the Long Stroke+. I use a Kagemitsu G4++ (uncommon variant) and I have somewhere around 33 str. Going against level 45-50 something enemies.

Right from the get go this doesn't seem sufficient, so can somebody provide some insight on a commendable Sword and Gun build, as well as how it selects the gun? I'm already aware of the semi auto triple burst thing with different swords, but how specifically does it choose and upgrade a gun? It gives me a also uncommon SPB Night Sky++ which isn't even in my item list while I have a spb night sky mk2 which I assume should be ++ too?

[BellFall]

the gun is fixed to the sword so you can't change it, so only way to change it is to change the sword.
main build is Str, vit, agi and abit of dex for the weapon reqs
personally swords are gimcky for the lower levels since you wont have access to the higher end skills and chip sets/stats for them to be used properly.

sword damage draws from your str pool but the bulk of damage comes from skills

[Electro]

Basically most of what BellFall said.

You really do need 255/285/315 STR for Sword because for some reason they used the same formula for Dex with Crit Damage and LUC with Crit Rate for STR with melee.
Which is basically 1+STAT/400
That and sword base damage low in the first place. So even with the 255 or more STR. It's only going to multiply the damage of the sword. So if the sword is weak, which they are then RIP.

This results in your sword's damage being 1.6375 times higher at 255 STR. So yeah even at your level to make any use of Sword Damage you need that 255 STR lol. So until you reach late game you will be squishy and low damage with sword at the same time if you try to go for that STR while gunners don't even need to invest in anything to out damage someone with a Sword. The main reason is simple and that's because guns can hit weak spots.

And to make it worse you are required to use Melee Booster Kit 2 on a gadget slot and STILL not do enough damage compared to guns. Really they should've made swords not require this gadget. Instead they should've made sword be possibly the best while using this buff.

Sword need the 44.50% Damage From Behind memory chip on top of everything already mentioned as well. But you aren't getting that till late game and with every DLC. And to even make any good use of that you basically need to have the Metamaterial Camouflage gadget and make your ArFA-Sys into a hardcore tank... Metamaterial Camouflage is legit the only good working argo-related skill... So everyone but the tank should have it lol.

And to even get a "decent" sword you need to farm in the 4th DLC.

And most sword skills don't even add much DPS over your regular attacks.

Plus you need insane recharge time which is once again another end game thing.

Overal only 4 sword types. Therefore only 4 gun types paired with swords. Swords are useful as a lock down character in ultra high level co-op assuming they are built properly for such a task.
The higher STR beam sword has SPB Night Sky
The higher DEX beam sword has HGBTS
Fragarach uses Miasma Edge
DLC sword Raikiri uses Long Stroke.


Edit: Just finished leveling Cyclone, the new DLC skill to level 4. This skill pretty much just prooves what I thought and that sword is straight up just a support lock down. It does worse damage than just attacking normally. And straight up guarantees a stagger on bosses with the 2nd hit.